Type-writer line-spacing.



J". ALEXANDER.

TYPE WRITER LINE SPAGING.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 17, 1908.

Patented June 25, 1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

31mm W602:

Jesse fllexaizdeir COLUMBIA PLANOURAPH 60.. WASHINGTON, D. c.

J. ALEXANDER.

TYPE WRITER LINE SPAGING. APPLICATION rum) NOV.17, 1908.

1,030,445; Patented June 25, 1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

IES PAT ENT OFFICE.

JESSE ALEXANDER, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR 0F ONE-HALF '10 D. N.

- THAYER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

TYPE-WRITER LINE-SPACING.

1,630,4tet5.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 25, 1912.

Application filed November 17, 1908. Serial No. 462,992.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Jnssn ALEXANDER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, county of Kings, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Type-Writer LineSpacing, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to typewriting machines, and is particularly concerned with improvements in the line spacing mechanism.

The object of the invention is to provide means for varying the line spacing at will; to provide a positive stop for the line spacing dog whereby absolute uniformity will be secured for a given spacing, and third, to simplify the construction of mechanism of this description and reduce it to the fewest number of parts compatible with effective operation,

With these and other objects in view, my invention consists in the construction and arrangement of parts, a preferred embodiment of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a plan view of the left hand end of the typewriter carriage mechanism showing my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view on the line 22 looking toward the left of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a front view of the parts shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view on the line 41-t (Fig. 1) showing the rearward position of the spacing dog stop. Fig. 5 is a view sinnlar to Fig. 4 showing the forward position of said stop. Fig. 6 is a detail View of the spacing dog stop. Fig. 7 is a detail view of the spacing dog and actuating lever therefor. Fig. 8 is a side elevation of the parts shown in Fig. 7.

In the embodiment of my invention herein selected for illustration, 1 indicates one side plate of the typewriter carriage frame.

2 indicates one of the connecting bars extending to the opposite side thereof, said side plate 1 has an upwardly extending finger 3 to afford means for manually shifting the carriage from one side to the other of the machine.

1 indicates the type-writer platen which is suitably pivoted as at 5 (Fig. 2) in the side plates 1 of the carriage frame, said platen is provided at one end with the usual spacing ratchet 6.

To provide for line spacing movement or rotation of the platen, a manually operable lever 7 is suitably pivoted as at the point 8 upon a side plate 1 of the carriage frame. Said lever 7 has an extension 10 arranged at substantially right angles thereto which projects through a slot 11 (Fig. 2) in the platen frame 9. Upon the inner end of the extension 10 is pivoted a spacing dog 12, which, as shown in detail in Fig. 7, is normally held with its ratchet engaging end in forward position by means of a coil spring 13 seated in a suitable recess in the foot 10 of the spacing lever 7 and engaging the tail 1 1 of the spacing dog 12. The spacing dog 12 is normally held in its upper position, as shown in Fig. 3, b spring 15 coiled about the pivot point of the spacing lever 7 and suitably secured to said lever and pivot whereby the spacing dog will at all times be in readiness for the line spacing operation. As will be seen from inspections of Figs. 1, 1 and 5, the spacing dog 12 is normally held just out of engagement with the ratchet teeth 16 of the spacing ratchet 6 upon the. platen 1. To effect the line spacing operation the spacing lever 7 is manually operated to the right whereby the spacing dog 12 descends upon the ratchet teeth 16 and upon continuation of said movement the platen is revolved until the spacing dog brings up against a stop surface 17 located upon a cross bar 18 of the carriage frame. The extent of revolution of the platen will be determined by the travel of the dog 12 between the point of engagement with the ratchet teeth 16 and the stop surface 17. In the normal position of the spacing dog or when it is swung to its extreme forward position by its sprlng 13, the movement imparted to the platen will be equal to two ordinary line spaces.

It is desirable that the line spacing be varied in order to secure the .usual single line spacing and half spacing. To this end, I provide means for changing the initial position of the outer end of the spacing dog 12, whereby it will engage at a different point of the ratchet 6 in its downward movement and thereby vary the extent to which the platen will revolve. For this purpose, I provide a dog stop 19 which is of substantially inverted U shape and is pivoted at 20 upon the plate 9 of the carriage frame. The rear wall 21 of the opening 22 (Fig. 6) in the dog stop is arranged in line with the tail 14 of the spacing dog 12, whereby the initial position of said dog stopwith rela tion to the ratchet teeth 16 of the ratchet 6 may be varied in order to vary the extent of movement of the platens. To this end, I provide for the adjustment of the dog stop 19 said adjusting means consisting of a pin 23 (Fig. 1) which projects inwardly from a shoulder 24 of the carriage frame plate 9 which pin is arranged to engage with any one of a plurality of recesses 25, 25 and 25 (Fig. 6) upon the outer surface of the dog stop 19 whereby said dog stop may be held in any one of three adjusted positions to vary the adjustment of said spacing dog 12. By inspect-ion of Fig. 4, it will be seen that when the dog stop 19 is adjusted to its rearward position or with the recess 25 engaging the adjusting pin 23 the stop wall 22 of the dog stop will be so positioned relatively to the tail 14 of the spacing dog 12 that the outer end of said dog will have approached to a position closely adjacent to the teeth 16 of the ratchet 6, so that upon downward movement of said spacing dog engagement will be effected with the uppermost of said ratchet teeth within the range of said dog and consequently the platen will be revolved to the full extent possible of the spacing movement. To change the extent of such spacing movement, it is only necessary to move forward the upper end of the stop dog 19 whereby the dog engaging wall thereof 22 will engage the tail 14 of the spacing dog and move the outer end of the dog into range with a lower tooth upon the ratchet 16 whereby upon depression of the dog less range of movement of the platen will be effected and said range of movementmay be varied at will determined by the adjusted position of said dog stop 19.

Variation in the downward travel of the spacing dog is also effected by the inclined stop face 17 against which the dog brings up at the end of its spacing travel. For, as will be evident from inspection of Figs. 4 and 5 variation in the position of the outer end of the dog from front to rear will cause the dog to bring up against a higher or lower point respectively upon the inclined stop surface 17. The adjustments of the stop dog 19 and the angle of inclination of the stop surface 17 are relatively proportioned to determine the necessary travel of the stop dog and consequently the spacing movement of the platen 4.

To further insure the proper checking of the downward travel of the spacing dog 12 in its spacing movement, the stop dog- 19 is provided with a shoulder 26 Fig. 6 which is arranged to engage with a lug 27, Fig. 7, on the foot 10 of spacing lever 7 and said shoulder 26 is so inclined that engagement therewith will be efiected by said lug 27 simultaneously with the engagement of the spacing dog 12 with the stop surface 17, hence all danger of overthrow of the spacing movement will be avoided.

In order to'hold the platen firmly in its spaced position, I provide a platen brake 28, Fig. 2, which is suitably pivoted to the carriage frame as at 29 and is provided with a braking surface 30 adapted to frictionally engage over several teeth of the spacing ratchet 6, said brake is also provided with a suitable finger piece 31, whereby the brake may be readily released from the platen when it is desired to free the latter for removal of the paper. To hold the brake firmly against the spacing ratchet, said brake has secured to its lower end 28, a spring arm 32 having a tooth 32 at its outer extremity adapted to engage a corresponding tooth 33 upon a spring plate 34 suitably secured to the bar 18 of the carriage frame. When the brake is in the position indicated in Fig. 2, that is to'say when freed from the platen, the tooth 32 of the spring 32 lies upon or above the tooth 33. 7 When, however, the brake is moved to a braking position, the tooth 32' of the spring 32 rid'es over the tooth 33 and lies below the same, and thereby holds the brake surface 30 of said brake firmly against the spacing ratchet 6. In order to prevent a too free revoluble movement of the platen when freed from the brake, I provide at the lower end 28 of the brake arm 28 a friction roller 35 which when the brake is freed from the ratchet 6 is arranged to engage the lower side of said ratchet and afiord a slight check to the movement of theplaten. This construction and arrangement also affords a stop to the rearward movement of the braking arm 28.

\Vhile I have herein described a particular embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood the same may be varied in detail and relative arrangement of parts without A departing from the spirit or scope thereof.

hat I claim is V 1. A typewriter line spacing mechanism comprising a platen having a spacing ratchet, a spacing lever, a spacing dog pivotally mounted thereon, an adjustable stop member to determine the initial position of the dog on said lever to vary the spacing movement thereof, said stop member having means to limit the throw of said dog, and a stop adjacent the spacing lever cooperating with said limiting means to vary the throw of said dog. 7

2. A typewriter line spacing mechanism comprising a platen having a spacingratchet, a spacing lever pivoted upon the carriage frame, a spacing dog pivotally mounted on said lever, an adjustable stop member oversta-nding said lever and having means to determine the upward and downward throw thereof, and having means also to adjustably determine the initial position 1 comprising a platen having of said dog, and a stop surface on the machine frame to permit varied movement of the spacing dog corresponding with the adj ustment of the stop member.

3. A typewriter line spacing mechanism, comprising a platen having a spacing ratchet, a spacing lever, a spacing dog, adjusting means arranged to vary the initial position of said dog relatively to said ratchet, and having means to limit the throw of said dog, and a stationary stop arranged in an inclined posit-ion transversely of the path of the dog, to vary the throw of said dog in conjunction with said adjusting means.

at. A typewriter line spacing mechanism a spacing ratchet, a spacing lever pivoted to the carriage frame, a spacing dog pivoted on said lever, an adjusting lever mounted on said carriage frame and adapted to engage the tailof said dog to adjust the initial position of the latter to and from said ratchet, a shoulder on said lever for variably limiting the throw of said dog in different positions of said lever, and a cooperating stop surface on the platen frame also for variably limiting the throw of said dog in conjunction with said stop shoulder.

JESSE ALEXANDER. WVitnesses:

R. W. POWELL, CHAs. A. PEARD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

